High court's ruling on Rhode Island Indian trust case could affect Oneidas' request

The U.S. Supreme Court today said a Rhode Island tribe isn't eligible for trust land -- a case that local activists say could doom the Oneida Indian Nation's trust request.

The Oneidas dispute that, saying their case is different from the Narragansett tribe and that the Supreme Court, in the city of Sherrill case, encouraged the Oneidas to request trust land just four years ago.

"The Supreme Court was very clear in the Sherrill decision that trust land is available and appropriate for the Oneida Nation, and this decision obviously does not change the Supreme Court's direction," the nation said in a statement.

After losing the Sherrill decision in March 2005, the Oneidas asked the federal government for 17,000 acres of trust land. The Department of Interior decided to take about 13,000 acres into trust, but that decision is being challenged in several lawsuits in federal court.

One of those lawsuits, filed by New York and by Madison and Oneida counties, argues that the Oneidas were not eligible for trust land for precisely the same reason as the Narragansetts. The lawsuit says the Oneidas were not recognized as a tribe in 1934 and thus aren't eligible for trust land. The Oneidas specifically rejected the Indian Reorganization Act in 1934, which means it would never apply to them, the lawsuit says.

Today's Supreme Court decision hinged on whether trust land was available to a tribe that was not formally recognized by the United States in 1934, when the trust law was enacted. The court ruled that a tribe not recognized in June 1934 was not eligible, and the Narragansett tribe was not recognized until after that.